CHICAGO
- The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), IRS and Customs agents and
local police arrested approximately a dozen defendants in several south
suburbs of Chicago in connection with Operation Northern Star, a nationwide
investigation of illegal trafficking in pseudoephedrine, an essential
ingredient in manufacturing the illegal drug methamphetamine. Eight defendants,
including two arrested in Cincinnati, face federal drug-trafficking conspiracy
charges in Chicago for allegedly illegally importing pseudoephedrine from
Canada and distributing it to California, where it was manufactured into
methamphetamine. Two of those eight and a ninth defendant were charged
in Chicago with money laundering conspiracy for allegedly disguising the
pseudoephedrine proceeds and sending the money out of the country, principally
to Jordan. A 10th defendant in Chicago was charged with attempted illegal
possession of pseudoephedrine, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United
States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

At least four additional
defendants arrested here, including one who was shot and wounded during
the arrests, are facing federal prosecution in Detroit or Los Angeles
in connection with the same investigation, which follows three phases
of an earlier, related investigation known as Operation Mountain Express.
Nationwide, the Drug Enforcement Administration, together with Customs
and Internal Revenue Service agents, also announced the arrests of dozens
of defendants in Chicago and other cities, including Cincinnati, Detroit,
Los Angeles, where additional federal charges have been filed.

The Chicago prong
of Operation Northern Star yielded the seizure of more than 17 million
pseudoephedrine tablets, including approximately 12 million in upstate
New York last August, and more than $500,000 in cash, including additional
seizures of more than $80,000 today. In January 2002, 14 Chicago area
defendants, including brothers Khaldon Esawi and Khaled Obeid, were arrested
and charged with illegally trafficking in pseudoephedrine as part of Operation
Mountain Express III. Those charges are pending in Federal Court in Chicago.

Federal agents and
local police began executing at least six federal search warrants early
today at south suburban residences of defendants arrested today. One defendant,
Abdulqader Mizyed, 29 (dob 9/1/73), who is facing federal prosecution
in Los Angeles, was shot and wounded when police and agents arrested him
at 6440 West 89th Place, Oak Lawn. Mizyed and a woman at the residence
who is not a defendant and who was also wounded, were both reported in
stable condition at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn where they were taken
for treatment. Three guns, including one from Mizyed and another in his
residence, were recovered.

Nine defendants in
Chicago were charged in one criminal complaint, and a 10th defendant was
charged in a second complaint, both of which were filed late yesterday
in U.S. District Court. Eight were charged with conspiracy to illegally
import pseudoephedrine, a federally-regulated List I chemical, knowing
that it would be used to manufacture methamphetamine. Pseudoephedrine
is generally used as an over-the-counter sinus medication, but it is also
an essential precursor chemical in the manufacture of methamphetamine,
a controlled narcotic substance. Three of the nine defendants in the first
complaint were also charged with money laundering conspiracy.

According to the
complaint affidavit, eight of the nine defendants conspired since March
2001 to illegally obtain and import pseudoephedrine from brokers in Canada,
transport it in tractor-trailers and store it in Las Vegas and Picayune,
Miss., before distributing it in southern California to middlemen, and,
in turn, to Mexican methamphetamine manufacturers, knowing that the pseudoephedrine
would be "cooked" into methamphetamine. The affidavit describes
several interceptions of large amounts of cash and shipments of pseudoephedrine.

Leading up to the
largest such seizure, the complaint alleges that in mid-August 2002, defendants
Ezzat Khalil, Osama Aldawasmeh, Naser Dar Eghrayyeb, Kaidin Alnoubani
and Izaldeen Taha agreed to purchase a shipment of 11,678,000 pseudoephedrine
tablets from defendant Georges Youssef in Canada for eventual sale in
California. The pseudoephedrine was supposed to be smuggled into the United
States from Canada concealed in a shipment of bottled water destined for
Mississippi. On Aug. 16, 2002, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police followed
a truck carrying the shipment to the Canadian-American border crossing
at Alexandria Bay, N.Y. At the border, the truck was searched by U.S.
Customs Inspectors, who found approximately 11,678,000 pseudoephedrine
tablets contained in 1,000-count white plain plastic bottles, which were
concealed in cardboard boxes bearing bottled water markings.

The complaint alleges
the following:

I.On March 3, 2001,
police in California executed a search warrant for a storage locker
in Rowland Heights. During the search, they found approximately 4,498,000
tablets of pseudoephedrine in 1,000-count plastic bottles, without any
labels or markings. A review of the rental records maintained by the
storage locker facility showed that the unit had been rented by Khalil,
of Oak Lawn;

II.On June 26,
2002, agents learned that Alnoubani had been employed to deliver U.S.
currency obtained from the sale of pseudoephedrine, and that in November
or December, 2001, he was hired to transport between $400,000 and $500,000
cash from pseudoephedrine customers in California to Chicago. Agents
learned that on April 6, 2001, Alnoubani had been stopped for traffic
violations by the Dawson County, Neb., Sheriff's Office. A consent search
of his vehicle resulted in the seizure of $240,365. The money was administratively
forfeited in September 2001 when no one made any claim on it;

III.In April 2001,
agents learned that Khalil had rented a storage unit in Placentia, Calif.,
on April 12. On April 17, 2001, surveillance agents observed and approached
a man loitering near the unit. They searched the man's car, which had
been rented in Khalil's name and found to the padlocked unit. Investigators
then executed a search warrant for the unit and found approximately
584,000 tablets of pseudoephedrine concealed inside the locker. The
man was arrested and charged in California with conspiracy to distribute
pseudoephedrine, knowing that the listed chemical would be used to manufacture
methamphetamine. On April 17, 2001, agents in Chicago executed a search
warrant at Khalil's Oak Lawn residence, where they found a receipt for
a storage locker in Baldwin Park, Calif. Subsequently, a search of that
unit yielded six cardboard boxes that contained 262,000 tablets of pseudoephedrine
contained in 262 1,000-count bottles;

IV.Other seizures
included 1,250 cases of pseudoephedrine and a sham substance on Oct.
10, 2001 in Minnesota, allegedly linked to defendants Dar Eghrayyeb
and Taha, and approximately $267,000 on March 18, 2002 in Utah, allegedly
linked to Dar Eghrayyeb, Aldawasmeh and Khalil.

"Once again,
today's action closes a major pipeline that funneled millions of illegal
pseudoephedrine tablets from Canada to California, where it was converted
into methamphetamine," United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald
said following the arrests. "Law enforcement did an excellent job
of following the chemical trail from the point of origin to the West Coast,
and then following the money trail back to Chicago," he said.

Richard W. Sanders,
Special Agent-in-Charge of the DEA in Chicago, said: "Without a steady
supply of bulk quantities of pseudoephedrine, it's a lot harder to make
meth, and you can't sell what you can't make."

Those officials,
together, with James W. Martin, Special Agent-in Charge of the IRS Criminal
Investigation Division , and Elissa A. Brown, Special Agent-in-Charge
of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, both in Chicago, commended the
extensive cooperation among local, federal and foreign law enforcement
agencies that participated in the investigation, including the RCMP and
the following local police departments: Oak Lawn, Justice, Bridgeview,
Palos Park, Waukegan and Chicago; the Cook County Sheriff's Police; the
Cook County State's Attorney's Office; and the U.S. Marshal's Service.

All of the defendants
arrested locally have had an initial court appearance beginning before
U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney I. Schenkier in U.S. District Court.

The nine-defendant
complaint charged these individuals and described them as follows:

Ezzat Khalil, 40
(dob 6/9/62), of 9511 Massasoit, Oak Lawn (search warrant location);
a central figure who organized and coordinated importation and distribution
of large quantities of pseudoephedrine from Canada into the United States
for eventual sale to methamphetamine laboratories in California. Khalil
coordinated with different groups of investors and participated in sales
and attempted purchases of pseudoephedrine in Las Vegas and attempted
distributions that were seized by the government in New York. Khalil
was also involved in laundering the proceeds of pseudoephedrine sales;

Osama Aldawasmeh,
39 (dob 11/13/63), of 1037 Park Crest, Darien (search warrant location);
organized and coordinated importation and distribution of large quantities
of pseudoephedrine from Canada into the United States. Aldawasmeh participated
in sales of pseudoephedrine in Las Vegas and attempted distributions
that were seized by the government in New York;

Kairdin Alnoubani,
42 (1/1/61), of 8731 Black Oak, Tinley Park (search warrant location);
organized and coordinated importation and distribution of large quantities
of pseudoephedrine from Canada into the United States. Alnoubani participated
in sales of pseudoephedrine in Las Vegas and attempted distributions
that were seized by the government in New York;

Naser Dar Eghrayyeb,
35 (dob 8/25/67) or 34 (dob 1/29/69) of 16651 Dorchester, Lockport (search
warrant location); organized and coordinated importation and distribution
of large quantities of pseudoephedrine from Canada into the United States.
Dar Eghrayyeb participated in sales of pseudoephedrine in Las Vegas
and attempted distributions that were seized by the government in Minnesota
and New York;

Izaldeen Taha,
37 (dob 2/14/66), Dar Eghrayyeb's brother-in-law, also of 16651 Dorchester,
Lockport, organized and coordinated importation and distribution of
large quantities of pseudoephedrine from Canada into the United States.
Taha participated in an attempted distribution that was seized by the
government in New York, and was also involved in laundering pseudoephedrine
proceeds and sending proceeds out of the country to Jordan;

Georges Youssef,
44 (dob 2/2/59), of Montreal, a Canadian pseudoephedrine broker who
was the source of a shipment of pseudoephedrine seized in New York on
August 16, 2002;

Jamil Jadallah
Abdelrahman, 52 (dob 9/28/50), of 7859 South Natoma, Burbank; who was
arrested in Cincinnati, investor in pseudoephedrine loads who attempted
to purchase shipment of pseudoephedrine in Las Vegas;

Hussein Wazwaz,
42 (dob 12/26/60), of 7704 West 82nd Place, Bridgeview (search warrant
location); also arrested in Cincinnati, pseudoephedrine broker who attempted
to set up purchase of pseudoephedrine in Nevada; and

The nine-defendant
complaint also alleges that three defendants - Taha, Khalil and Hussein-
conspired to disguise the source of the pseudoephedrine trafficking proceeds
by exchanging the cash generated by the sales for official bank checks
purchased from a bank account of a grocery store controlled by Hussein.
Once the cash had been replaced by official bank checks, Taha arranged
to transfer the proceeds to relatives in Jordan.

In addition to Abdulqader
Mizyed, also arrested in the Chicago area and facing federal charges in
Los Angeles is Saleh Mizyed, age unknown, also of 6440 West 89th Place,
Oak Lawn; and charged in Detroit are: Ali Salem, Nasir Baste and Mohammed
Awad, whose ages and addresses are not immediately available.

If convicted, each
of the Chicago defendants faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison
and a maximum fine of $250,000. Note, however, that the Court, will determine
the appropriate sentence to be imposed under the United States Sentencing
Guidelines.

The DEA is being
represented in the prosecution of these defendants by Assistant United
States Attorneys Kevin Powers, Christopher Niewoehner and Aylice Toohey.

The public is reminded
that complaints contain only charges and are not evidence of guilt. The
defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which
the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.